Dom Gueranger on the Second Sunday after Epiphany and Feast of the Most Holy Name Of Jesus: Pt. I.

"The Star has led the soul to faith; the sanctified Waters of the Jordan have conferred purity upon her; the Marriage-Feast unites her to her God. We have been considering....the Bridegroom revealing himself to his Spouse; we have heard him calling her to come to him from the heights of Libanus; and now, after having enlightened and purified her, he invites her to the heavenly feast, where she is to receive the Wine of his divine love."

But at the earthly marriage feast in Cana, the wine fails.

"Wine is the symbol of Charity or Love, and Charity had failed on the earth.....
The True Vine is our Jesus......He alone could give the 'wine which gladdens the heart of man'; he alone could give us that Chalice which inebriateth......

"Thus divine Charity, which dwells in the Sacrament of Love, is communicated to us; and, that we might not be unworthy of the espousals with himself, to which he called us, he raises us up even to himself........."

Dom Gueranger identifies separate commissions which the Holy Spirit gave to the Evangelsist. St. Matthew, "the Evangelist of the Humanity of our Lord, is to announce "the Mystery of Faith by the Star"; St. Luke, "the evangelist of Jesus' priesthood" is to instruct us in the Mystery of His baptism; but it is John the Beloved Disciple who is to reveal the Mystery of the Marriage-Feast.

" He (John) suggests the object of this third Mystery: 'This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and he manifested his glory.'

"At Cana it is Jesus himself who acts, and he acts as God, for, says St. Augustine, He who changed the water into wine ......could be no other than the One who, every year, works the same miracle in the vine. Hence it was, that from that day, as St. John tells us, 'his disciples believed in him' and the Apostolic College began to be formed."

Part II on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus to follow in next post